Baroque Works[2] was a criminal organization created by the former Shichibukai, Crocodile, to take over the kingdom of Alabasta. The organization accomplished many different tasks over a period of several years for that one purpose.[4]

Baroque Works agents often function as bounty hunters and take down pirates in order to earn more money to aid their operations.[2] These bounty hunters were persuaded under the false goal that Baroque Works' objective was to build an ideal nation and performing well in the organization meant higher social status in said nation.[3] The more important tasks of the agents, however, were to spread lies and rumors in Alabasta about their king, Nefertari Cobra, in order to launch a rebellion against him.[5] They did this by releasing the illegal substance Dance Powder to cause the drought in the country.

All these missions together led toward the takeover of Alabasta and Crocodile's ultimate goal, the Ancient Weapon Pluton that is said to be hidden somewhere in the kingdom. This overall plan went under the name "Operation Utopia".[6] Baroque Works' known operation locations outside of Alabasta are Whiskey Peak and Little Garden.

Crocodile's ambitions, as well as the entire organization itself, were crushed by the Straw Hat Pirates, who came to Alabasta to help their good friend, Princess Nefertari Vivi. After Crocodile was defeated, Alabasta was saved and Vivi, who was going to join, decided to stay as a princess of Alabasta.[7] Crocodile, Mr. 1, Mr. 2, and Mr. 3, four of the top Baroque Work Members got sent to Impel Down for their crimes. There, they assisted their former enemy, Luffy, in breaking out of Impel Down to rescue Ace.

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The Baroque Works system of code names is simple. All the main agents are given code names and address each other by these. No one knows the other agent's actual names.[8] There are differences between male agents code names and female agents code names; male agents get a number in their name, while female agents are named after days and holidays (Officer Agents are holidays while Frontier Agents are days as well as Mother's and Father's Day).

The ranking order among the organization goes by numbers; the smaller the number, the higher the rank an agent has. The main agents are, with the exception of Mr. 2, all made of a male/female pairing that are named after the male agent (e.g., Mr. 1 and Miss Doublefinger are the Mr. 1 pair).

On top of the organization is the boss Crocodile, who calls himself "Mr. 0." His partner is Miss All-Sunday. Below this top pair there are thirteen main pairs of agents who take orders directly from the top, although they did not know Mr. 0´s true identity until he revealed it to them in Rain Base. There are five main agents under Mr. 0, known as the Officer Agents (オフィサーエージェント,Ofisā Ējento?). They are the main agents of Baroque Works and are paired with female agents that best compliment their abilities. The other pairs, the 6th pair up to the 12th pair, are known as the Frontier Agents (フロンティアエージェント,Furontia Ējento?). They are spread out all over the first few islands of the Grand Line and raise funds to sponsor the activities of Baroque Works by attacking pirate ships that just arrived in the Grand Line. The 13th pair are the punishers and they punish any agents that fail in their missions.[9][10]

Below the higher ranking agents, there are 2000 subordinate agents called Millions and Billions. The Millions are the subordinates of the frontier agents and are 1800 agents in total. The Billions are the other 200 agents who are subordinates to the officer agents, who are said to be the next in line to become a number agent should a position be opened.[10] These members also have Mr. and Miss proceeding their code names but, unlike number agents, these names follow no pattern whatsoever.

The Billions (ビリオンズ,Birionzu?) refer to henchmen working under the Officer Agents of Baroque Works. They were first introduced in Chapter 129 and Episode 78.
There are 200 Billions.[11]Portgas D. Ace defeats a large number of their ships with his Hiken technique.[12] Billions are also the men due promotion on the Baroque Works ranking system into number agents, and are said to be just as powerful as Baroque Works' number agents that have numbers higher than ten. The possibility of becoming a number agent appears to make the Billions rather power hungry, as a majority of the things they do that they are not ordered to do revolve around being promoted and are perfectly willing to kill their own members to become promoted. Many billions were seemingly killed by fire fist Ace, although they were easily replaced later. Later other billions participated as undercover agents in the Royal Guard and Rebels in the Battle of Aluburna and were responsible for spurring on the battle by attacking during certain ceasefires in the battle, like the beginning of the battle and when Kohza tried to surrender.

Baroque Works, as a whole, were one of the biggest threats the Straw Hats had faced yet. With a leader among the Shichibukai, a group of highly trained assassins and bounty hunters, and about 10 devil fruit users, they were a dangerous threat.

The millions were a group of highly trained bounty hunters, with the Billions even being more deadly then them.

The Frontier agents, were a far greater threat. While a hundred millions were defeated by Zoro with ease, Mr. 9, Mr. 8, Miss Monday, and Miss Wednesday were able to give Zoro more of a challenge. Mr. 7, and Miss Father's Day were also highly skilled snipers.

The Unluckies, while ranked 13, were a great enough threat to scare most agents, and had a job to kill any agent that failed. Mr. 13 was able to even cut iron with his shells.

The Office agents were a greater threat then the Frontier agents, though. The 5 pair alone was able to take down Mr. 8, Miss Monday, and Mr. 9 with ease. While the 4 pair was stronger then the 3 pair, they were ranked lower because the 3 pair was smarter. However, Mr. 4 was able to lift a 4 ton bat with ease, Miss Merry Christmas was able to break through stone with no problem, and even Lassoo was a threat with his exploding baseballs. The 3 pair was not weak, though; Mr. 3 was able to give Luffy a difficult time, and Miss Goldenweek was able to control him with her Colors Trap. Mr 3 was also smart enough to trap Zoro, Nami, and Vivi, as well as make two giants defeat each other so he could capture both of them. Mr. 2, was an Okama Kenpo user and was able to defeat Usopp and Eyelashes in two seconds each, and was able to nearly defeat Sanji, breaking a few of Sanji's ribs. Miss Doublefinger was a highly skilled assassin who could break stone with her fist, and nearly killed Nami before being defeated. Mr. 1 was the deadliest threat after Crocodile. He was a well known assassin from the West Blue who even Zoro heard of. Daz Bones, was also able to nearly kill Zoro, and only lost when Zoro learned to cut steel.

Miss All Sunday, was the second in command, and was also highly powerful. She defeated Pell, the strongest warrior in Alabasta, with little effort.

Mr. 0, or Crocodile was the leader and strongest member. As a Shichibukai, a Logia, and a man with a bounty of 81 million , he was the first villain to defeat Luffy and the only person to do it twice. He was so powerful it was only when Luffy came back a third time that he was finally defeated.

Oda once joked that Baroque Works sends their members on holiday to the winter festivals in Hokkaido. Since none of the members are allowed to meet, they would send them separately.[15]

Many of the dreams revealed by Miss Goldenweek's Colors Trap were difficult for the Baroque Members to resolve.

Crocodile's dream (like Luffy's) was to become the Pirate King.

Mr. 1's dream to be a superhero was a pun with his Devil Fruit, the Supa Supa no Mi, because in Japan super is supa. His nickname as a "Killer" makes it somewhat ironic with heroism.

Mr. 4's dream to be a pizza boy would have been hindered by the fact he was too slow (hence why his apron has "delivery in 30 hours" written on it).

Mr. 5's dream to be a fireman was also considered problematic, as his Devil Fruit powers are something a fireman would have considered hazardous. (On the other hand, the fact that he was immune to explosions could be seen as beneficial as he would be unaffected by backdraft explosions).

Miss Doublefinger's dream to remain as Paula the cafe owner would not have been considered ideal due to the Spiders Cafe's run-down state. (However, her dream was one of the few to be realized: the Baroque Works members who escaped returned to create a new Spiders Cafe from the Cactus Saloon)

Miss Merry Christmas' dream to be a princess was also considered very farfetched because of her rudeness and Devil Fruit power involving digging around in the dirt.

Miss Valentine's Day wished to be a girl who creates chocolate confections, linked to her name "Valentine." It can also be considered ironic, due to her lemon theme and as chocolates are often linked to obesity, though her Devil Fruit allows her to hide her weight.

Out of all the officer agents only Miss All-Sunday, Mr. 3 and Mr. 2 Bon Kurei did not have their dreams revealed by Miss Goldenweek's technique.

Robin's own dream was revealed through the Straw Hats' adventures: to discover the True History. Her dream was hindered by her plight against the World Government, something later revoked by the Straw Hats' dedication to their own crewmates.

Mr. 2 Bon Kurei later revealed he had always dreamed of meeting Emporio Ivankov, a dream he later is able to make happen in Impel Down thanks to Luffy. His dream had been hindered by the fact that Ivankov was held within Impel Down's walls.

Coincidentally, all three have aided Luffy in some way.

Members of Baroque Works are placed in levels of Impel Down that are more severe than their assigned bounties (Mr. 2 Bon Kurei was in Level 3 despite having a bounty lower than 50,000,000; Crocodile was in Level 6 despite having a bounty lower than 100,000,000).

"Baroque" is the name of an artistic style from 16th century around Europe, including Italy, which might be a reference to how Italian mafia organizations work (like codenames). This particular name may have been chosen because the Baroque art style is associated with the elaborate and dramatic, mirrored by Baroque Works' deeds.

The idea of a numbering system to designate agents, such as the one Baroque Works uses, is fairly popular in fictional criminal organizations, such as the SPECTRE organization of the James Bond series.

During Movie 2, a Baroque Works ship can be seen behind Going Merry when it was being captured.

All the male members except Crocodile have their numbers somewhere on their bodies.